ready for it
by WeBothWentMad
Summary: Oliver Queen thought that it was best his family continued thinking him dead, until Amanda Waller agreed to an old deal he made with her and gave him an offer to save Starling City. (rated m to be safe)
1. Chapter 1

The splattering of the rain against the window of an almost barren apartment on the edge of Moscow did not help Oliver Queen attempt to fall asleep any easier. He glanced up at the ceiling and huffed out a sigh. This late at night his mind tended to drift to his family. He wondered what they were doing, what they thought about, and if they were happy? Except those thoughts never went anywhere and weren't worth the time.

They were much better off without him there. Without his darkness to corrupt them. They wouldn't want to see who he had become within the past five years. Someone who could easily take a life without a second thought. No one needed someone like that around.

The only positive of his time away was that he had put a protection plan in place for his family. After his last mission on the island with ARGUS, he had made Amanda Waller put it into writing that if anything were to happen to Starling she would bring in his family as well as the Lances, Tommy Merlyn, and Felicity Smoak, and keep them safe.

Oliver knew that he couldn't always keep an eye on them and Waller owed him. He at least hoped she would honor the deal after he saved her life almost two years ago. Oliver may have met more men in the Bratva that had better morals than Amanda Waller, but he believed that she would keep his family safe. And if for whatever reason his family died he would go after her and there would be nowhere she could hide from him. Under Waller's own tutelage Oliver had gotten very good at hunting.

His mind couldn't help but drift back to Felicity Smoak. He had been friends with her since the beginning of high school when she tutored him in just about every subject. And they had remained friends four colleges he had dropped out of tended to be around Boston, where she attended MIT, which made it very easy for them to hang out. During one of the times that she had came and visited him at his dorm room after one of his numerous breakups with Laurel that he realized that he was in love with her.

He had tried to push down those feelings with even more alcohol and drugs than the copious amounts he ingested on a regular basis. It shocked him that that method hadn't worked. At some point he resigned to himself that Felicity was far too good for him and that she would never be in love with him. He got back together with Laurel, trying too hard to make something that was already broken work. And then he ran to the Queen's Gambit, with Sara after Laurel wanted to take them to move in together and he couldn't take it. All the while leaving a drunken voicemail for Felicity the night before they left, where he confessed his love for her.

Oliver shifted to his side and closed his eyes. He didn't need to keep dwelling on all of this. There was no use in thinking of his family and friends over and over again, when nothing he did would impact them anymore. He did not plan on going home any time soon. He wasn't worth it. With all of his incredibly illegal acts within the Bratva as well as his training with Talia Al-Ghul. They were both things that should never be around his family or friends.

The sound of his phone buzzing tore him out of his thoughts. Oliver felt around the floor next to his bed, which was really just a mattress on the floor. Once his hand enclosed around the phone he brought it over to himself and squinted at the bright screen. Someone from a blocked number was calling him and he had an idea of just who would call him from a blocked number.

Without putting too much thought into it, Oliver answered the phone.

"Amanda." He greeted coldly.

* * *

"Director Waller!"

Amanda Waller raised her head from the report she was reading over at the sound of her name being called from an analyst that had somehow made it past her assistant. God, couldn't her assistant do anything right? She had told him that she didn't want to be disturbed. Having an analyst run into her office was very disturbing. She had half a mind to fire her assistant for this.

"What?" Annoyance clear in her tone as she turned to the analyst, her glare threatening to turn the man to dust.

"Something big is happening in Starling City." The analyst said as he handed her a file.

Waller took the file with a little more force than what was necessary. She opened it and skimmed over the words. Her face paling only slightly, just enough that someone would notice if they were sitting closely to her.

If what this analyst had found was correct, then Starling City was in incredible danger. Which meant she had to contact Oliver Queen and round up his family and bring them in to the Starling City branch of ARGUS. God, she wished she had never made that deal with Queen.

So she could have some operative possibly investigate and she didn't have to give it another thought.

But, damn it, if she was keeping Queen's family safe, she might as well bring the man in himself. His skillset was unfortunately unrivaled to any of her operatives. And he could be used to get this over with quicker.

She was about to endure hell with bringing Queen back to work with her, if he would even do so. He seemed to resent working with her, even if he ended up using the same methods anyway. It was a moot point she didn't spend much time thinking about. There wasn't a point in trying to understand how Queen's mind worked.

"Jennifer!" Waller called out for her assistant. "Have some operatives bring in Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Walter Steele, Thomas Merlyn, Quentin Lance, Laurel Lance, and Felicity Smoak. Put them in conference room A and post an operative outside the door to keep them there until I get there."

Jennifer scurried off to do as Waller said.

Waller motioned for the analyst to leave and they left silently. She looked back at the file, and sighed as she pulled out her phone and dialed Queen's number.


	2. Chapter 2

"Were you summoned too?" Thea Queen asked Tommy Merlyn as he entered a conference room that contained a table that was nearly the length of the room and had seats on each side. It looked like any of the conference rooms that she could find at Queen Consolidated, but something felt off about it. More than the fact that Thea and her family had been taken here almost against their wills.

"Yep." Tommy said as he dropped into a seat beside her.

Thea's eyes drifted to across the table, where her mother and Walter sat, talking in hushed whispers.

"Do you think anyone else is coming or why they even want us here?" Thea glanced towards the door.

"I don't know." Tommy sighed. "None of the guys that brought me in would say anything."

They both looked over at the door as it opened again and Felicity Smoak walked in.

"Hey, 'Licity." Tommy greeted. "It's been a while."

Thea had once considered Felicity practically an older sister. When Ollie had started high school, she had started hanging around with him and Tommy. And since they had been inseparable and Felicity would spend the time with her as well. And not just because Thea had the habit of chasing Oliver wherever he went. She would genuinely spend time with her. Thea had first thought that she was just one of Ollie's girlfriend's that would be gone within the week. But then she kept coming back and Ollie was different around her.

Back then Thea could have sworn that they would have ended up together, except Ollie had been on and off with Laurel. And eventually running off with Sara on the Gambit, which certainly ended that idea.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Things have been crazy." She shrugged and sat down next to Tommy.

Before Tommy had a chance to respond, the door to the conference room opened again. This time, Laurel and Quentin Lance came in.

Both of them remained silent as they sat across from Tommy and Felicity. Laurel gave them a slight nod in greeting. While, Quentin glared at his shoes and refused to acknowledge any of them.

An air of awkwardness permeated the air at the tension between the Queens and the Lances. Thea glanced over at Quentin and it looked as if he was trying to burn a hole in the floor with how hard he was looking at it. It felt odd all of them being in the same room.

Thea stared at her hands as she tried to figure out why someone would want all of them together. The only thing all of them had in common now was that Ollie and Sara had both died when the Gambit went down. Whoever it was had quite a bit of sway in the government. They had to have some sort of power to get them all there. And with the sort of security they had to go through to get in was insane.

After about fifteen minutes of an uncomfortable silence, a woman with mocha skin and her hair pulled back into a severe bun walked into the room. She had an air of authority surrounding her and to Thea, there was also something that just felt wrong.

"I'm sure that you all are wondering why you have been brought here." The woman said as she glanced over them disdainfully.

"You can't just keep us here." Quentin broke in.

Thea gave a short nod in agreement. She was fairly certain that not even the government could keep them there for no good reason or without a warrant or something.

"Mr. Lance," The woman started before being interrupted.

"Detective." He corrected.

The woman ignored him completely. "You are all currently at the Starling City headquarters of A.R.G.U.S. And I'm Director Waller."

"What's A.R.G.U.S.?" Felicity blurted out.

"A black ops government agency." Director Waller said sharply.

Thea didn't understand why this Director Waller was so irritated with them. They hadn't done anything and this woman was acting like she couldn't stand another minute with them.

"Back to the point, a former operative of mine made a deal that if anything were to happen to Starling City that all of you would be brought in. Which is exactly why you're all here. A.R.G.U.S. received intel a couple days ago that told us that Starling is in danger."

"What's going to happen?" Thea asked and she couldn't keep the tremor out of her voice. What could be so bad that they had to be taken to a government agency to be protected. Who would even protect them?

"None of you have clearance to know."

"That's not right!" Thea couldn't help but respond. "You can't say we're here for our safety and then not tell us why."

Her mother reached out and lightly tapped her hand in an attempt to keep her quiet. Thea huffed as Director Waller stared at her for a moment longer in what she would almost say admiration. But that would be ridiculous. This woman already seems like an emotionless government robot and who would admire someone that talked back to them?

"Life is not fair, Miss Queen."

"Who is this operative? And why do they want to protect us?" Moira asked, staring evenly at Director Waller.

Director Waller smirked like a cat that caught the canary.

"Now, I might as well tell you the whole story." Director Waller began. Something made Thea feel uneasy about this and the way too eager look that Director Waller was sporting. Especially for a woman that was hiding information from them before.

"Why would you tell us about this but none of the other stuff." Tommy interjected, while Laurel nodded fervently.

"It involves someone you all care about and information is always good leverage." A short grin came across her face that showed too many teeth.

Thea watched as confusion splashed against almost everyone's face as they tried to take in the new information. Thea thought that it did not make any sense. There was someone they all cared about? And them knowing about them was leverage? How could them knowing about someone be useful?

"Almost five years ago the Queen's Gambit sunk." Thea could already feel tears welling up in her eyes at the idea of her father and brother. She could hear her mother take in a sharp breath.

"As far as I know two people survived the initial sinking."

Thea couldn't help the words spilling from her lips. "Was it Ollie or dad?"

"Let me finish, Miss Queen." Director Waller let out an irritated sigh. "To my knowledge, Robert Queen died not long after the Gambit went down."

Thea felt tears falling down her cheeks and when she glanced over tears were in her mother's eyes. Her father was dead. She had already known this for five years, but it felt like she was losing him all over again.

"What about Sara?" Detective Lance asked. Thea wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand as she looked over at Director Waller to see how she would react.

"Miss Lance drowned about three years ago."

"The Gambit went down five years ago?" Laurel asked, confusion scrunching up her face.

Thea couldn't help the blossoming hope inside of her that Ollie could be alive. She glanced over at Tommy who had the same sort of hope blaringly obvious on his face.

"Yes, Miss Lance survived the Gambit sinking and she lived on a freighter for a year or so before reuniting with Mr. Queen."

"Oliver?" Moira breathed out. Thea felt as if the air was stolen from her lungs. Over the years she had hoped that Ollie was alive, but now it felt more real. "Oliver's alive?"

"Mr. Queen should be on his way here." Director Waller glanced at the clock and sighed.

Thea couldn't help the teary smile forming on her face. Her brother was alive.

* * *

Oliver Queen had promised himself that he would never do another thing that Amanda Waller asked, yet here he was in the Starling City office of A.R.G.U.S. He had never wanted to get involved with A.R.G.U.S. again after the last time ended up with him being dropped back on Lian Yu. And now he wasn't necessarily sure what he was walking into.

He walked briskly through the halls and avoided eye contact with anyone in the hall. Oliver had briefly looked over the blueprints for A.R.G.U.S.'s headquarters on his flight to Starling, looking for any possible exits, because without a doubt he would probably end up having to run from A.R.G.U.S.

But until then he was going to try and find the conference room that Waller had said to meet her at and if he had read the blueprints right, it was around the corner. Oliver pulled his hood a little farther over his head, he was not that willing to have anyone recognize who he was.

As soon as the conference room was in sight he froze. The walls were glass and he could clearly see inside. It felt as if the blood in his veins had froze. He was staring at his family. He hadn't been this close to them in years. And God, it had been too long. He couldn't help his shock at seeing Laurel and Quentin Lance in the room too.

Oliver knew that he included them on his deal. But he had never expected Waller to actually bring all of them in. He expected her to maybe put a couple agents outside of their houses to keep an eye on them. But now, Waller had his family in the conference room that she had instructed him to arrive too. Did she want them to find out that he was alive? Why now?

There was no way he could just walk right in. They all thought he was dead, and Waller was probably playing some sort of angle. An angle that he did not want to get involved in.

He also did not particularly want to see his family. They were people that remembered him as an insufferable prick that didn't give a damn about anyone but himself. He was different now. He had killed people, a lot of people. While a few months earlier he wanted nothing more than to go home, now he did not want them to see the monster that he had become. But depending on Waller's agenda they might find out what sort of monster he was now.

Oliver walked along the hallway, keeping his face away from the conference room. Carefully, he leaned against the wall next to the door, with his back to the conference room.

He could hear the muffled voices inside, mostly Waller's. Probably giving some sort of bullshit excuse for them all being detained there. He didn't like his family being this close to Waller. It was easy for her to sink her teeth into a person and refuse to let go while dragging them down to their lowest point. At least that was what she had done to him.

"Are you Oliver Queen?"

Oliver's head snapped up at the sound of his name. The man standing in front of him was huge, he was only a couple inches taller than Oliver and had arms that were as big as bowling balls.

"Who's asking?" Oliver crossed his arms over his chest. It was a little worrying that someone other than Amanda Waller in this building knew his name.

"Agent John Diggle." The man held out his hand. Oliver hesitated for a moment before shaking his hand.

"Oliver Queen."

"It looks like we'll be working together." Agent Diggle said eyeing him up and down.

Before Oliver had a chance to respond he could hear heels clicking inside the conference room behind him. He turned just enough to see Waller walking over to the door.

Waller opened the door and smiled at them, the look on her face set of warning alarm in Oliver's mind. "Come in, gentlemen."


End file.
